2015 World Congress on Brain, Behavior and Emotions

This was the official website for the 2015 World Congress on Brain, Behavior and Emotions.
Content is from the site's 2015 archived pages.

More than 140 Brazilian and foreign experts discussed evidence and challenges of science on the brain, behavior and emotionsLectures, debates and public participation consolidates the World Congress on Brain, Behavior and Emotions as a major multidisciplinary events in the world.

Recent research and advanced technologies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases were presented at the 11th edition of the World Congress on Brain, Behavior and Emotions, held in Porto Alegre from April 29 to May 2.

The event reverberated in national and international press, interested in the new evidences shared by 140 Brazilian and foreign experts (USA, Canada, Argentina, England, among other countries) with many specialists on psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, neuropsychology and geriatrics.

The Brain Congress in 2015 strengthens itself each year as a reference in multidisciplinary, attracting other specialists in areas such as radiology, pediatrics, physical therapy, endocrinology, genetics, general surgery, internal medicine, radiology, angiology, ophthalmology, nephrology and pulmonology.

The event fully met in order to promote discussions aimed at improving research, from prevention to treatment of disorders and diseases triggered by changes in brain function, in addition to the exchange between Brazilian and foreign, essential for those who develop cutting-edge research. This is the opinion of the coordinators of this year, the neurologist Paulo Caramelli, coordinator of the Clinical Hospital neurology servisse, from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, and also neurologist Jorge Moll, who chairs the D'Or Institute for Research and Education, in Rio de Janeiro.

Multidisciplinary scientific event model, the 11th edition of the World Congress on Brain, Behavior and Emotions had the support of the Brazilian Society of Psychology, the Brazilian Association of Geriatric Neuropsychiatry (ABNPG), Brazilian Academy of Neurology (ABN), Brazilian Association of Neurology, Child Psychiatry and Allied Professions (ABENEPI), Brazilian Society of Neuropsychology and the Brazilian Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SBGG).

Among the topics presented, the highlights were those aimed at the preservation of brain integrity, with guidance on how to prevent dementia and disorders related to the brain, especially to the elderly. Experts also brought evidence of the importance of every person to respect your own sleep time, explaining their involvement in the onset and healing of diseases.

The event addressed controversial issues as the proven harms of marijuana and 50 new synthetic drugs entering each year in Brazil, as well as evidence that evil has a strong genetic component and that most of the offenders is unrecoverable and relapse to commit offenses when they have opportunity. According to doctors, the results of which should provide support in the trial of criminals and the definition of public security policy. Betrayal explained under the points of view of genetics and social behavior was also one of the issues of great appeal to lawmakers and the media. Frequent under-diagnosis of autism reveals the need for early assessment and the damage that has been caused to many patients, who end up being confused with those with other pathologies of neurological order, such as OCD, psychosis and schizophrenia.

"The prestige of the Brain Congress was growing at each edition and today we are sure that we build together with leading specialty entities a fruitful experience for all. For next year, we are committed to making a renewed and even better event in Argentina", points out Eduardo Correa, director of CCM Worldwide Medical Congresses.

The 2016 event is already marked place and date: Buenos Aires from 12 to 15 June. One of the most recognized features of the Brain Congress is seeking the renewal of talks and invited experts. Among the foreigners already confirmed big names like the British Barbara Wilson, Catherine Harmer and Richard Frackowiak, Americans Joseph Ledoux, Helen Mayberg and Jay Giedo, Canadian Donald Stuss and Robert Hare and the French Yves Agid.

An aside: Having attended Brain Congress in 2015, I found the information regarding the most recent research and advanced technologies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases to be of particular interest. The conference was also a great way to network. A most unexpected contact was with an expert who helped companies with their Salesforce lead implementation. It actually turned out to be serendipitous for myself and my practice. At our practice we were in the midst of discussions regarding investing in a fully customized Salesforce org implementation to accelerate and optimize sales, and to improve our processes and workflow. The woman I was introduced to, by another colleague, was part of a Salesforce team for a company whose offices were based in Virginia not far from my practice. We arranged a no-obligation sales meeting when we both had returned from the Brain Congress. The upshot was we hired RTS LAbs and they worked with us to launch and implement Salesforce for our practice.

Moderator: CARLOS R. M. RIEDER (Brazil/RS)Reflections after more than two decades of research investigating Deep Brain Stimulation
Speaker: ALEXANDRE FRANCISCO (Brazil/PR)The concept of interfering with brain circuits: small brain regions and the control of movement
Speaker: ERICH FONOFF (Brazil/SP)

Round TableWhat do biomarkers ‘mark’ and how should that impact upon clinical decisions?
Moderator: MARIO FRANCISCO JURUENA (Brazil/SP)Peripheral biomarkers in pre-symptomatic or prodromal neurodegenerative diseases
Speaker: ANTONIO LUCIO TEIXEIRA JR. (Brazil/MG)BDNF and other peripheral biomarkers: What do they tell about the prognosis of mental disorders?
Speaker: RODRIGO GRASSI DE OLIVEIRA (Brazil/RS)The magical, mysterial images of the brain: what should we make of that?
Speaker: MARCELO HOEXTER (Brazil/SP)Discussion

09:30-10:30

What´s Next

Moderator: PEDRO DO PRADO LIMA (Brazil/RS)

10:30-11:00

Break

12:30-14:00

Satellite Symposium - JanssenImproving the diagnosis of schizophrenia from the beginning of the treatmentAdvantages of the long-acting treatment
Speaker: MARCUS ZANETTI (Brazil)Discussion of case reports
Speaker: EDUARDO DAURA (Brazil)Q&A;

Round TableFear, memory and neuroscience: emotions associated with the fearful memories
Moderator: DIOGO LARA (Brazil/RS)Extinction learning, which consists of the inhibition of retrieval, can be learned without retrieval
Speaker: JOCIANE DE CARVALHO MYSKIW (Brazil/RS)Modulation of the extinction of fear learning
Speaker: IVAN IZQUIERDO (Brazil/RS)Therapies based on memory reconsolidation
Speaker: DIOGO LARA (Brazil/RS)Discussion

• Sala 03

Time

Activity

08:00-09:30

Round TableSevere childhood epilepsies: new and renewed strategies to control seizures and improve cognition
Moderator: ANTONIO CARLOS MARRONE (Brazil/RS)A modern look at the severe childhood epilepsies
Speaker: JADERSON COSTA DA COSTA (Brazil/RS)The new and the revival of the old: where do we stand with the treatment of very severe epileptic kids
Speaker: ANDRÉ PALMINI (Brazil/RS)Epilepsy surgery can control seizures and improve motor and mental development
Speaker: ELISEU PAGLIOLI NETO (Brazil/RS)Discussion

09:30-10:00

Break

10:00-10:40

ConferenceHow many neurons in our brains: which of those make the human difference?
Moderator: PAULO JANNUZZI CUNHA (Brazil/SP)
Speaker: SUZANA HERCULANO-HOUZEL (Brazil/RJ)

Speakers

Plenary Keynotes Speakers

JEAN DECETY Estados Unidos
Irving B. Harris Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago Director of the Child Neurosuite and the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. He is a leading scholar on the social neuroscience of empathy, morality and prosocial behavior, as well as other topics related to neurobiology of social cognition. His work has led to new understandings of mpathy, affective processes and moral decision-making in typically developing individuals as well as psychopaths. His research uses neuroimaging techniques (functional MRI and high-density EEG) and genetics in children and adults to examine how biological and social factors interact in contributing to empathy and the motivation to care for the well-being of others. Dr. Decety is the current President of the Society for Social Neuroscience. He recently edited the Oxford Handbook of Social Neuroscience (2011) and Empathy from Bench to Bedside (2012).

MARK HALLETT Estados Unidos
Is chief of the Human Motor Control Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health. He is now Editor-in-Chief of World Neurology, the newsletter of the World Federation of Neurology and Associate Editor of Brain. Research Areas: physiology of human voluntary movement and its pathophysiology in disordered voluntary movement and involuntary movement.

MOSHE SZYF Canadá
Professor Szyf received his Ph. D from the Hebrew University and did his postdoctoral fellowship in Genetics at Harvard Medical School, joined the department in 1989 and currently holds a James McGill Professorship and GlaxoSmithKline-CIHR Chair in Pharmacology. He is the founding co-director of the Sackler Institute for Epigenetics and Psychobiology at McGill and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Experience-based Brain and Biological Development program. Szyf has been the founder of the first “Pharma” to develop epigenetic pharmacology “Methylgene Inc.” and the first journal in epigenetics “Epigenetics”. Szyf lab has proposed two decades ago that DNA methylation is a prime therapeutic target in cancer and other diseases and has postulated and provided the first set of evidence that the “social environment” early in life can alter DNA methylation launching the emerging field of “social epigenetics”.

ROBIN MURRAY Reino Unido
Robin Murray, a Scottish psychiatrist and professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College in London presents his keynote “100 Years of Schizophrenia – Is This Enough?” at the 2012 Hearing Voices World Congress in Cardiff, Wales. Murray is part of The Psychosis Research Group, one of the largest outside the United States. It uses a range of methods to improve understanding and treatment of psychotic illnesses, particularly schizophrenia. For the decade from 1997 to 2007, Murray was ranked as the 8th most influential researcher in psychiatry by Thomson Reuters’ Science Watch and 3rd in schizophrenia research. This is latest in a series of conference presentations which will be featured on MadinAmerica.com

Keynotes Speakers

ANDREW A. NIERENBERG Estados Unidos
Dr. Nierenberg is Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Co-Director of the Bipolar Clinic and Research Program, and Associate Director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University followed by a residency in psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital and then became a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale University. In 1992, he joined the Psychiatry Department at MGH. He has published over 250 original articles and over 60 reviews, editorials, and chapters, and has been listed among the Best Doctors in North America for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders continuously since 1994. He received the NDMDA Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award and was elected as a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. His primary interests are treatment resistant depression, bipolar depression, and the longitudinal course of mood disorders. Dr. Nierenberg lectures nationally and internationally, teaches and supervises clinicians and researchers, maintains an active clinical practice, conducts clinical trials, and is Editor in Chief of CNS Spectrums as well as on the editorial boards of multiple psychiatric journals.

GEORGE M. SLAVICH Estados Unidos
Dr. Slavich is an assistant professor and Society in Science – Branco Weiss Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. He is also a Research Scientist at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, where he directs the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research. He completed undergraduate and graduate coursework in psychology and communication at Stanford University, working with Dr. Ian Gotlib, and received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon, working with Dr. Scott Monroe. After graduate school, he was a clinical psychology intern at McLean Hospital and a clinical fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He subsequently completed three years of postdoctoral training in psychoneuroimmunology, first as an NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow in the Health Psychology Program at UCSF, where he worked with Drs. Margaret Kemeny and Elissa Epel, and then as an NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA, where he worked with Drs. Naomi Eisenberger, Steve Cole, Connie Hammen, and Shelley Taylor. Dr. Slavich’s research examines how adverse social experiences affect health, particularly in the context of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and depression. Dr. Slavich is also a stress assessment and intervention expert, and has provided life stress consultation and management services to a variety of public and private organizations including the National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging, and several large companies and universities. He has also helped many major organizations implement brief, empirically based stress reduction programs. In addition to research, Dr. Slavich is deeply devoted to teaching and mentoring, and to developing groups and forums that promote student development. For example, early in his career he founded the Stanford Undergraduate Psychology Conference, the Western Psychological Association Student Council, and the Society of Clinical Psychology’s Section on Graduate Students and Early Career Psychologists. He has received several awards for these contributions including the Neal E. Miller New Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the Theodore H. Blau Early Career Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Clinical Psychology from the Society of Clinical Psychology, and the Raymond D. Fowler Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Professional Development of Graduate Students from the American Psychological Association.

JOHN HARDY Reino Unido
Chair of Department of Molecular Neuroscience at UCL, Institute of Neurology – UK; he is one of the most highly cited authors on Alzheimer’s disease research. Research Areas: Alzheimer disease.

JOHN MORLEY Estados Unidos
John Morley, M.D., is an internationally known expert in male menopause/low testosterone, nutrition, aging and sexuality, Alzheimer‘s disease and general aging issues. An endocrinologist as well as a geriatrician, Morley also is a strong source on athletes who use steroids and other hormones to enhance performance. Morley is witty and explains science in an understandable way. Internationally respected as a scientist and clinician, he is frequently featured as a speaker at national and international symposiums. Morley takes a common-sense approach to helping his patients remain vital and vibrant, advocating against therapeutic diets and for a glass of wine and plenty of time with loved ones each day. Morley also has created a self-diagnostic questionnaire for older men to help them figure out if their sagging sex drive and general grumpiness might be symptoms of a problem that could be helped by testosterone replacement therapy. Morley is the recipient of multiple national awards for his leadership in geriatrics, including the James Pattee Award for Excellence in Education, and is listed in the International Who’s Who in Medicine for his research on obesity. Morley is a SLUCare physician, the Dammert Professor of Gerontology and director of the division of geriatric medicine and acting director of the division of endocrinology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He is the coauthor of the book, The Science of Staying Young.

JORDAN GRAFMAN Estados Unidos
Jordan Grafman, PhD, is director of Brain Injury Research at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Before joining RIC, Dr. Grafman was director of the Traumatic Brain Injury Research at Kessler Foundation. His investigation of brain function and behavior contributes to advances in medicine, rehabilitation, and psychology, and informs ethics, law, philosophy, and health policy. His study of the human prefrontal cortex and cognitive neuroplasticity incorporates neuroimaging and genetics, an approach that is expanding our knowledge of the impact of traumatic brain injury, as well as other diseases that impair brain function, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis and degenerative diseases. Dr. Grafman aims to translate his research into more effective, targeted rehabilitation to achieve the best outcomes for people with cognitive disabilities. Dr. Grafman’s background includes 30 years of experience in brain injury research. He has studied brain function in dementia, depression, and degenerative neurological diseases, as well as TBI. He has authored more than 300 research publications, co-editor of the journal Cortex, and provides peer review for numerous specialty journals. At the National Institutes of Health, he served as chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. While in the US Air Force, he served at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as neuropsychology chief of the Vietnam Head Injury Project, a long-term study of more than 500 soldiers with serious injuries of the head and brain. He is the leading expert on the long-term effects of penetrating brain injuries in military personnel. His expertise includes the scope of challenges faced during recovery, including behavioral changes like aggression, late sequelae such as seizures, and the impact on TBI on family life and employment, and legal implications. He is an elected fellow of the American Psychological Association and the New York Academy of Sciences. Dr. Grafman is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Department of Defense Meritorious Service Award, the National Institutes of Health Award of Merit, 2010 National Institutes of Health Director’s Award, and the Humboldt Reserach Award. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. His expert opinion is often sought by national media on issues related to brain function and behavior, cognitive rehabilitation, and policy and legal issues related to brain-behavior research.

MARTIN BOHUS Alemanha
Martin Bohus received his M.D. at Freiburg Medical School and did his residency in Psychiatry and Neurology at Freiburg Medical School. He made his specialty in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and in Psychosomatic Medicine. Since 2003 he holds the Chair of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Heidelberg University and is Medical Director at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim. He received several awards for psychotherapy research. He is a Board Member of the German Association of Psychiatry (DGPPN), Vice President of the European Society for the Studies of Personality Disorders (ESSPD), President of the German Association for DBT and co-Chair of the International Strategic Planning Meeting for Dialectical Behavior Therapy (SPM). He was President and Initiator: 1st International Congress on Borderline Personality Disorder, Berlin 2010 and since 2012 he is a Spokesperson of the Clinical Research Unit “Mechanisms of Disturbed Emotion Processing in BPD”. He has currently published 220 articles and book chapters, mainly on borderline personality disorders.

MICHAEL HORNBERGER Reino Unido
Michael Hornberger completed his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience in 2006 at University College London (UK), which encompassed functional neuroimaging studies of cognitive processes. During his PhD he worked for 4 years at Cambridge University (UK) and the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge conducting cognitive studies in healthy individuals and dementia patients. Since 2007 Michael has been at NeuRA continuing his cognitive neuroscience research in healthy ageing and neurodegenerative patient populations. He is particularly interested in identifying the neural correlates of behavioural and cognitive symptoms in patients. Based on these findings he is developing new diagnostic tests or tools for neurodegenerative conditions, which will improve early diagnosis of such conditions as Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia, Motor Neurone disease and Parkinson’s disease.

SUZANA HERCULANO-HOUZEL Brasil
Neuroscientist and science writer, interested in comparative neuroanatomy. Main research lines involve cellular scaling rules that apply to different brains, and developmental mechanisms of the generation of diversity in evolution. B.Sc. in Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1992); M.Sc. in Neuroscience, Case Western Reserve University (1995); Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Université Paris VI (1999); Post-doctoral fellow at the Max-Planck Institut for Brain Resarch (1999).

Event Venue

FIERGS

Multifunctionality, infrastructure, leading edge technology and an excellent location are just some of the characteristics that make the FIERGS Exhibition & Convention Centre the perfect place to hold events of all types and sizes.
These characteristics are evident through the interlinked and adjustable spaces, perfectly adaptable to any type of event, with a total area of 36,724.85m². Therefore, the space is ideal for congresses, conventions, tradeshows, concerts, receptions, award ceremonies, graduation ceremonies and much more.

Parking facilities with a capacity for 3,100 vehicles; access for people with disabilities; air-conditioning; medical emergency services with a fully equipped clinic and a duty nurse technician (Protected Area); and electronic security monitoring are some of the infrastructure aspects that deserve to be highlighted, as well as the many support services available to clients.

The FIERGS Exhibition & Convention Centre relies on state-of-the-art technology in scenic lighting equipment, sound and multimedia systems, in addition to having broad band internet, video conferences and digital telephony.

Located in Porto Alegre, at the headquarters of the Federation of Industries for the State of Rio Grande do Sul (FIERGS), the FIERGS Exhibition & Convention Centre is close to the main South American and Brazilian capitals. It is located 15km/15min from the city center and 12km/12min from the Salgado Filho International Airport.